Does your smart meter make your nose bleed?
Are you terrified of your microwave?
Have you installed am anti-brain cancer thingy on your cell phone?
Welcome to the world of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and their alleged harmful effects.
For the last ten years or so, people have been worrying about EMFs, along with the increase in the use of electronics. And even though scientific data obtained so far is reassuring about the effects of EMFs on human health, a lot of people are still scared.
It took almost a year to create this comic. After all, the topic is mind-blowingly complex and, as a pharmacist, I am not at all qualified to speculate about it. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to work with two awesome collaborators from the very beginning:
Jérôme Poulin (Ph. D) is a physicist and researcher in optical physics. His Ph.D thesis was about cold atom guidance in a hollow-core photonic cristal fibre using a blue detuned hollow laser beam (Olivier’s note: I have no idea what that means… I think it’s about building the next Death Star or something). He was also part of the Electro-Urban Brigade, a team of scientists who measured the daily exposure to electromagnetic fields of citizens in the province of Quebec, Canada.
Michel Trottier-McDonald (Ph.D) is a physicist and data scientist. He namely worked on the ATLAS experiment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN in order to find the Higgs Boson (Olivier’s note: yeah, that big thing).
None of us are experts on the effects of EMFs on health and we don’t pretend otherwise. Fortunately, scientific knowledge on the matter is advanced enough for us to relay conclusive evidence to you.
The 5 key messages of the comic go as follows:
- Certain types of electromagnetic radiation can break the molecules of the body, others cannot;
- Until proven otherwise, mobile/radio/Wi-Fi fields do not pose a threat to human health;
- Every day, we are exposed electromagnetic radiation that is hundreds, if not thousands of times below the international standards deemed safe;
- Symptoms experienced by people who identify as “electrosensitive” do not appear to be caused by electromagnetic fields;
- So-called experts and companies that pretend otherwise may not be trustworthy, or even qualified to discuss EMFs.
But hey, you should to read the comic before disagreeing…
So cover your head with aluminium foil, make holes for your eyes, turn off your router & 4G and read this right away!
P.S. As always, scientific references for this comic are listed in the first comment.
Translated by Patricia Rainville; edits and proofreading by Robyn Penney.
Posted in Comics
Tagged 4G, alarmist, aloe, aluminium foil, anti-EMF, apartment, baby monitor, balanced, bananas, Bioinitiative Report, Bluetooth, boil, bombarded, brain, brain cancer, brain cells, brain tumors, break, burn, cancer, cap, carcinogenic, cell phone, charismatic, claims, coconut oil, coffee, companies, conspiracy, cosmic rays, criticism, daily, dangerous, data, deposits, depression, device, distress, DNA, doctor, doubt, Earth, electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, electronics, electrophobia, electrosensitive, electrosensitivity, EMF, EMFs, emitters, energy, equipment, experts, exposure, Faraday cage, fatigue, gadgets, geeks, Group 2B, harmful, heache, health, heat, hermit, home, hoodie, house, human body, hurts, impacts, international standards, ionizing, irregular heartbeat, justification, knowledgeable, laser, leader, leukemia, light bulb, Linky, long-term, LTE, media, medicine, mental illness, metallic, microwave, mobile, molecules, motives, mutations, next-generation, Nobel, non-ionizing, nosebleeds, nuclear, objective, off, on, overblown, panties, participants, pendant, physicists, physics, possibly carcinogenic, potassium, power lines, pragmatism, precautionary principle, pregnancy belt, protection, psychological disorders, radiation, radio, radio towers, radio waves, radioactivity, reactions, reassuring, research, retina, router, safer, safety margin, scared, scientific evidence, scientists, scoop, screen, sick, signal, smart electric meter, smart meter, so-called, solid, stricter, suffering, suicides, sun, sunburn, sunlight, symptoms, technology, threat, tissues, trials, TV remote, ultraviolet, unanimous, under-diagnosed, unsafe, UV rays, visible light, waves, WHO, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi allergy, World Health Organization, wristband, X-rays
Look like sugar has become public enemy #1.
Some of the newfound concerns are completely justified, but some are not. Actually, it’s become one of these black-or-white craze, where one website tells you to cut all sugar from your diet, whereas another one claims it’s harmless.
And to tell the truth, I’m kind of pissed off about everything we’ve learned regarding the industry in the last few years, so I agree that something has to change.
(And as it happens, I’m especially irritated by the whole juicing fad, which is totally related to this, although most people don’t realize it.)
Obviously, a single comic strip can’t cover the whole subject, but I’ve selected 5 common beliefs that, I think, come from a poor understanding of the core issues we’re facing here.
Nope, you won’t have to go sugar-free (or keto).
But yep, you may have to rethink how you eat quite a bit.
Translated by Patricia Rainville; proofread by Stéphanie Alcaraz-Robinson.
P.S. This comic is NOT AT ALL an endorsement of the ketogenic or low-carb-high-fat (LCHF) diets. Both are ill-advised for most people. Too much sugar OR too much fat isn’t a good idea; that’s the whole point of a balanced, plant-rich diet (e.g. the Mediterranean diet).
Posted in Comics
Tagged 25 grams, 25g, absorb, active lifestyle, added sugar, agave, amount, Ancel Keys, ancient grains, antioxidants, beliefs, big sugar, bread, brown sugar, cake, calories, campaign, cane sugar, cavities, coconut sugar, coffee, companies, concerns, craze, cut, damaging, dessert, diabetes, diet, eat, fad, fair trade, fat, FDA, fiber, food, food porn, foods, free sugar, fresh, fructose, fruit, glycemic index, government, granulated, grocery store, harmful, harmless, health, heart disease, hidden sugar, homemade, honey, hunger, initiatives, intake, juice, juicer, juicing, link, magnesium, maple syrup, minerals, molasses, natural, nutrition facts, nutritional tag, obesity, organic, organisms, overconsumption, pharmacies, pharmacy, prevention, prison, processed, raw, refined sugar, rigged, risk factor, ruin, Seven Countries Study, smoothies, soda, soft drinks, soup, sports, sugar, sugar industry, sugar papers, sugar-free, taste, texture, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, vegetables, veggies, vitamin C, WHO, World Health Organization, yogurt, young
In early 2015, medias reported that the flu vaccine had had an efficacy of 0%. Scary stuff.
And it was true : the flu vaccine, for that particular year, was ineffective.
Because of news like that, people wonder every year if it’s worth getting a flu shot. It’s a fair question.
But if you’re like me, to really understand what’s going on, you need explanations that involve swordfights, weird monsters and people getting thrown off castle walls.
So, there you go.
Posted in Comics
Tagged efficacy, flu shot, game of thrones, H1N1, H3N2, ineffective, influenza, mutation, strains, vaccine, virus, WHO, winter, World Health Organization, zero
